Meet the author – Paul Heritage-Redpath

We thought it was about time you got to know a bit more about the authors of this blog, their areas of expertise and what makes them tick. After all, you’re spending your valuable time reading what they have to say and listening to their opinions! Therefore, we plan to periodically publish a ‘Meet the Author’ article to help you get to know each one a little better. We’ll kick it off with Paul Heritage-Redpath, Entanet’s Product Manager… How long have you worked at Entanet Paul? 2 years 6 months – which doesn’t seem like 5 minutes… What are your key responsibilities within the business and what are your areas of expertise? As Product Manager at Entanet I am responsible for ensuring we deliver the right voice and data products to our partners to empower them to succeed. That breaks down into four main areas: providing market insight to the management team; defining and testing the feasibility of new products; managing their development and launch including pricing and then monitoring their success in-life and retiring products as necessary. Expertise - being the go-to person on the details of our portfolio means life is never dull, as things change all the time. With regards to opinion, which topics do you usually cover and why? As well as being involved in one way or another with software and networks my whole working life, I am a non-practising solicitor, so I enjoy wearing my compliance hat at Entanet and reviewing contracts and regulation. I’m a firm believer that mass surveillance is not a good thing. In the last year I’ve covered the defeat of the draft Communications Data Bill and more recently the unseemly haste with which the Data Retention and Investigatory Powers was rushed through, as well as the Which proposals for guaranteed broadband speeds (if only such a thing were possible). Do you have any specific industry areas of interest that you would like to discuss on opinion or that you particularly follow? I’m sure we haven’t seen the last of the proposals in the Communications Data Bill and we will continue to cover this. My next focus will be whether Ofcom have achieved their aims in the forthcoming consumer switching changes; quite often with regulatory interventions the intentions are sound, but the law of unintended consequences intervenes. In your latest blog, you discussed the ‘right to be forgotten’ and its effect on the industry. There has been an update recently advising that the UK Government now plans to fight this legislation as it’s ‘unworkable’ - how do you think things are going to pan out on this issue and do you have any predictions you would like to share? An EU-only right in a global world feels a lot like trying to close the stable door after the horse has well and truly departed. Online reputation management in an age of over-sharing is a topic that will run and run. It’s an issue inextricably linked with online bullying, and there are no easy answers; what I would say is that existing legislation has served us well thus far, and more legislation may well not solve the fundamental challenges of human nature. You also recently discussed the highly controversial emergency data bill (DRIP), do you think this is the last of DRIP or will it continue to be fought against by privacy advocates? In your opinion how can we strike a balance of protecting people’s privacy and satisfying the UK’s security and police requirements? The judicial review of the Act will be interesting. Targeted interception warrants with appropriate reviews are one thing, attempting to capture everything all the time just in case is quite another. Intervention by the state should only ever be necessary and proportionate. We actively encourage feedback and interaction from our readers, what would you like to hear about from them? Our success depends on our partners being successful, so we always welcome feedback from the frontline. As part of my role I engage regularly with Ofcom, Openreach and BT Wholesale. Partners might be surprised how much they too appreciate input into their future plans – so please use us as a conduit to make your views known! Getting to know Paul What are your interests/hobbies outside of the office? I’m a keen amateur photographer and movie buff. Also, long country walks to counteract sitting at a desk all day are restorative. If you could have a superpower what would it be and why? Colleagues already suspect I have bat-like hearing. As a child I found the ability of the robots in Disney’s Black Hole to levitate to be deeply cool. Levitating would make dusting my smoke alarm much easier. Who would you like to meet dead or alive and why? I’ve met Steve Wozniak and he was charming; I’d have enjoyed sparring with Steve Jobs. Perhaps in the next life. What are your three favourite things in life? My wife, my cat and my job. Cruise holidays, driving hard and a good Martini run them close. What is your pet hate? Moaners. So much more can be achieved in life with a positive attitude. [cookiecontrol1] [subscribe2]